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Parenting / Families

Latent Profiles of Dyadic Affect and Family Interactions Among Adolescent Girls and their Mothers with a History of Depression

(PS10-B36) Latent Profiles of Dyadic Affect and Family Interactions Among Adolescent Girls and Their Mothers with a History of Depression

Saturday, November 19, 2022

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST

Location: Westside Ballroom, 5th Floor

Author(s)

JG

Jenny Guo, B.S.

Graduate Student
Florida International University
Miami, Florida

Co-Author(s)

Karissa A. DiMarzio, M.S.

Graduate Student
Florida International University
Miami, Florida
Mei Yi Ng, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Florida International University
Miami, Florida
JP

Justin Parent, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor (Research)
Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island
RF

Rex Forehand, Ph.D.

Heinz and Rowena Ansbacher Endowed Professor,University Distinguished Professor
University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont
BC

Bruce Compas, Ph.D.

Patricia and Rodes Hart Chair of Psychology and Human Development
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee

Background: Depression often starts in adolescence, with lifetime prevalence doubling from age 13 (8%) to 18 (15%). The escalating risk for depression onset signals an optimal window for prevention or early intervention during the early-mid adolescent years—however, intervention focused on adolescents alone is not effective when a parent is currently depressed. Indeed, the children of depressed mothers—especially girls—are 2-5 times more likely to be depressed and experience longer, more frequent, and more impairing episodes. To reduce intergenerational transmission, family interventions have been designed to target parenting practices, youth coping, and parent-youth interactions. Although existing interventions hold promise, effect sizes have historically been small and short-term, potentially limited by the standardized, one-size-fits-all nature of these interventions which tends to assume homogeneity in parental depression and family relationship characteristics. To inform future efforts to personalize family interventions with the goal of disrupting intergenerational patterns of maternal depression transmission, the current study used a person-centered approach to identify and classify subtypes of family-specific models among mother-daughter dyads.

Method: The sample was comprised of 79 mother-daughter dyads. All mothers had a history of Major Depressive Disorder, and daughters were between 9-15 years old. Parent and youth reports of depressive symptoms and observed dyadic affect and family interactions during a structured task were used as indictors for a latent profile analysis (LPA).

Results: Three profiles emerged as the best fitting model from the LPA. Profile 1 was characterized by mothers and daughters who were both irritable and experiencing low positive affect, high interparental and parent-youth conflict, low maternal laxness, and very low warmth, encouragement of emotional expression, and emotional support. Profile 2 was characterized by daughters experiencing more sadness and irritability compared to their mothers, but similarly low positive affect, high parent-youth conflict, very high maternal laxness, and high emotional support. Finally, Profile 3 was characterized by high mother and daughter positive affect, low parent-youth conflict and maternal laxness, and high warmth, encouragement of emotional expression, and emotional support.

Discussion: Findings from the current study have the potential to inform personalization of family-based interventions for youth at risk for depression. Specifically, families could be matched to interventions targeting characteristics specifically found in each subtype, which may improve intervention effects and mitigate the intergenerational transmission risk of depression.